


How You Fell In Love With A Space Alien (and other stories)

by andadobeslabs



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Meet-Cute, POV Second Person, Past Relationship(s), Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-12
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-08-14 18:31:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8024518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andadobeslabs/pseuds/andadobeslabs
Summary: “By the way, I saved your planet and your species, and you’re welcome.”
You were pretty sure she wasn’t kidding, but you laughed anyway





	1. Last One Out of Beach City

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! I watched Last One Out of Beach City and couldn't help myself. Pearl!!! Flirting!!! Omg!!!
> 
> Anyway, I hope you like it!

You could say it all started when Mike asked you to hand out flyers for his show in Ocean Town. You weren’t sure if anyone in Beach City would be willing to drive that far for a garage show, but the balding man at the car wash took two, one for him, and one for his friend Amethyst. You thought about asking what kind of name Amethyst is, but you kept your mouth shut. It’s strange, though, how he stared at you when you first walked in. Like he’d seen a ghost.

“You all right?” You asked him, and he snapped out of it.

“I’m sorry, yeah, you look just like someone I used to know.” He smiled and took a flyer, leading to the aforementioned conversation.

Maybe Beach City wasn’t far enough. Maybe you should have moved across the country instead.

To be perfectly honest, it all started when you moved to this strange city in the first place.

Everyone told you it was irresponsible to leave home without finding a job first, but you didn’t feel like you had a choice. Everything reminded you of her. Everything brought back memories, the gas station, post office, even the bank. You needed a complete change of scenery. So you decided to move to the beach. It was only a few hours away, close enough that your parents could still visit if they absolutely wanted to, but far enough away to leave the memories behind. At least that’s what you told yourself.

You found it alarming, though, when you handed your resume to an overly enthusiastic, but also intimidating, man. “You’re human, right?” He asked.

When you gave him a puzzled look, he only chuckled and said, “The hair, I was just making sure.” When that didn’t wipe the look off your face, he added; “You’ll figure it out, living here.”

That wasn’t ominous or anything.

He gave you an offer on the spot. You didn’t even wait to hear back from the two restaurants you applied to because there was no job more glamorous than sweeping floors and cleaning bathrooms at a boardwalk arcade. Combined with the money you made trading your car in for a motorcycle, the pay would cover the cost of rent for your new apartment on the beach.

Maybe, between the new place, the new hair, and the new piercings, you might even convince yourself that you’ve changed.

  
~*~*~*~*~*~

You didn’t expect to work so hard. Your third week on the job, Mr. Smiley asked you to come in at 4 in the morning to do maintenance on all of the games before opening. You shouldn’t have mentioned your aptitude for technology in the interview. Apparently, that was grounds to make you work a technician’s job with minimum wage pay.

You almost forgot about Mike’s gig when you were heading out. You debated not going at all; you’d seen him play before, but not since you’d moved away, and he didn’t come all the way to the coast very often. Maybe it would force you to meet people.

You begrudgingly headed to the Big Donut for coffee. Fortunately, you tutored Lars in math for free, so you didn’t have to pay. Sadie wouldn’t have been happy about that, but she let Lars get away with whatever he wanted. You noticed three people standing by the drink coolers, one looking decidedly un-human, with literally purple skin, but you made a conscious effort not to stare.

While you were mixing sugar with your coffee, one of them approached you. “Approached” might be a strong word. The woman walked up to you and knocked over some cups. You hurried out of there as quickly as possible. You didn’t want to get involved.

But you remembered her cheeks turning bright blue, almost like she was blushing, and you wondered if her face felt warm too.

You choked back the mediocre coffee and took off.

The sun must have set while you were lost in your head. You thought about the people in the Big Donut for a while, the pale, taller girl in particular. She certainly didn’t look typical, or human at all really, but you couldn’t quite talk yourself out of finding her attractive. Maybe it had been rude to take off without saying anything.

Maybe you’d never see her again, and it wouldn’t matter anyway, so you just needed to stop thinking about it.

Then she looked at you on the highway. You smiled and left her behind at the light.

She blew by you, followed by the police, and you still spoke to her when she showed up at the show. She was dressed differently, no longer in an oversized jacket and jeans, but instead a turtleneck tunic and leggings. It was weird, but you were weirdly into it. She started the conversation by holding out her hand.

Why not? You went for it.

“How did you get your hair that color?” She asked, and you took note of her voice. She sounded a little bit nervous, but it was rich and pleasant.

“I just re-dyed it yesterday. It’s not usually this vibrant.” You smiled. “How do you color yours?”

She laughed. “My appearance is just a conscious manifestation of light.”

Clever. “I know how that is.”

She gave you a puzzled look. “By the way, I saved your planet and your species, and you’re welcome.”

You were pretty sure she wasn’t kidding, but you laughed all the same. You reached into your pocket and pulled out a receipt, writing your number on the back of it.

Maybe you should’ve changed your phone number since you’d moved? Now it was too late, and you were giving it out to people.

When she shuffled back to the rest of her group awkwardly, you wondered if you misread the situation. But the next time you glanced at her you caught her smiling.


	2. Call Me Maybe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for the kudos! I hope you like this next chapter!

She didn’t call, at least not at first.

By the time you were even reminded of her again, you had almost forgotten already. Then a stocky teenager stopped you in the arcade.

“You’re mystery girl! You’re in Beach City!” He stated excitedly, and you tried to remember if you knew him from anywhere.

Mike’s concert. He was with that woman. The strawberry blonde with the sleeveless turtleneck that blushed blue. 

“ _Am I_ mystery girl?” You asked, but before he could respond, Mr. Smiley noticed and cut you off.

“Back to work, S!” And the boy shot Mr. Smiley an apologetic look.

“I’ll leave her alone, don’t ban me!” And Mr. Smiley grumbled something unintelligible. Steven coaxed you into a slightly private corner. “You gave Pearl your phone number a few weeks ago.”

“Oh.” You pretended to have forgotten. “She never called me.” Her name was Pearl. Pearl, Pearl, Pearl.

“Yeah... Pearl doesn’t have a phone. I don’t know if she’d know what to do with one if she did. When she showed us your number, she thought it was some code.” He explained. You smiled to yourself.

You had to admit. That was adorable.

“Does she live in Beach City too?”

“Yeah, we live in a temple on the beach. You can almost see it from here. It’s by the cliff. It has a face. I don’t know how else to describe it.” He shrugged.

We. Was he her son?

“So how should I get in contact with her, then? Other than through you.” You asked. He looked deep in thought for a moment before he responded.

“You can come to the temple when you get off work! I’ll make sure she knows you’re coming.” When you gave him a bit of a suspicious look, he continued, “Last time I tried to organize a date it didn’t work out that well. I’ll leave that up to you this time.”

You nervously chuckled. “I guess I can wander up and down the Beach until I find it.” He smiled bigger than you’d ever seen someone smile. His eyes practically twinkled.

“Great!” He almost turned away to leave, but then remembered why he approached you in the first place. “The skeeball machine stole my quarter. Do you think you could help me out?”

It was a good thing you didn’t hate that job.

~*~*~*~*~*~  

Mr. Smiley approached you, as you were finishing up your shift. “Steven is a nice kid and all, but you should probably stay away from him.”

“Why’s that?” You asked, assuming he had a personal grudge.

“All of the Crystal Gem stuff he gets involved with seems to end up with the whole city evacuating. You weren’t here during the Giant Space Hand fiasco, were you?” You stared blankly. “Apparently some other aliens showed up to capture the ones in the Temple, and it just was a whole big thing.”

“He just asked me to get his quarter from the skeeball machine.” You lied. He stared at you for a second, but you are the queen of the bluff. He nodded, eventually, pleased with your answer.

You headed towards the beach despite everything, but as soon as you could clearly see the ‘Temple’ in the distance, you decided to duck into the Big Donut instead. Lars wasn't working, unfortunately, so you wouldn’t be getting anything for free, but even Sadie could be a good distraction if you tried hard enough.

“Nice evening we’ve got here.” She didn't respond to your opening. “How about a donut?” The selection is depressing this time of night, only half an hour or so before closing. “Surprise me.”

“That’ll be $2” She grabbed the plain donut closest to where she stood, and you started to think that maybe she didn’t like you very much.

“What do you know about the Crystal Gems?” That seemed to pique her interest.

“Steven is great, but he’s the only one I really know.” She noted conversationally. “They’ve done nothing but protect us, as far as I can tell.” You dug through your wallet to find a 5. You let her keep the tip.

“Thanks.” You said, not feeling any more reassured than before you came in.

Someone answered the door to the temple, but it wasn’t Pearl.

“You must be mystery girl.” She was tall, also purple. British accent?

“That _does_ seem to be my name now, yes.” You joked. She didn’t laugh, but she smiled.

“You do realize that Pearl seems to like you.” She explained, and you found yourself seriously doubting this entire decision.

“I hope so.”

“Not in just the friendly way.” She added, and you chuckle a bit.

“Garnet!” Another voice interjected. The lighter purple one, from the concert. “Don’t scare away the only human to talk to Pearl on purpose.” She put out her hand. “I’m Amethyst.”

“Car wash guy mentioned you!” You pointed out, but before she could respond, you noticed Pearl walking timidly into the room. “Hey!” You said past Amethyst, and Pearl’s eyes went wide, but she wasn’t blushing.

“So you’ve met my friends.” Pearl gave the two a look, and they stepped aside, pretending not to pay attention. “How have you been?”

“Pretty good, just finished work.” She gestured for you to step inside. “I like your house.”

“It’s not really my house. It’s Steven’s. I don’t sleep or have any need for most of this. She explained, matter-of-factly. “But we are his guardians, so we spend a lot of time here.”

“Oh,” Was all you had to say to that, so you looked at your feet, awkwardly. You weren’t sure how to continue the conversation.

“But all that’s a technicality. What brings you here this evening?” She asked, and you noted some hope in her eyes. She was incredibly attractive. That’s why you were there.

“I was informed by Steven today that you don’t have a phone.” She nodded. “So I wanted to ask you if you wanted to go to dinner with me tomorrow night?” She flinched but continued nodding.

“Of course. That’s what people do. _Dinner_. Where would you like to meet?”

“How about Fish Stew Pizza? 6pm?” She agreed with enthusiasm.

“That sounds wonderful!” 

You headed to leave. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then!”

“That you will! Goodbye, S! Have a good evening!” She shut the door behind you, quickly, and you accepted that what you felt at that moment was a combination of apprehension and excitement.


	3. To Pick You Up On Our Very First Date

You were a bit horrified when you noticed how Pearl was looking at her pizza slice.

Instead of eating in, you two opted to take individual slices off the boardwalk and onto the beach. You didn’t bring a blanket, so the two of you just sat in the sand.

“So, tell me about yourself.” She asked, right as you took another bite of pizza.

While you were chewing, you noticed she had not taken a single bite of her pizza, and instead was holding on to it, and looking at it, as if it was radioactive.

“I just moved here a little over a month ago, I drive a motorcycle, and I work at the arcade.” You summarized, and she nodded intently. “Is there something wrong with the pizza?”

Her face scrunched up immediately. “I don’t know how to say this...” She stated as if she was about to tell you something incredibly important. “I haven’t been entirely honest with you.” She responded to your sudden alarm. “I don’t eat.”

“Oh.” You laughed. “Why didn’t you just say that when I asked you out to dinner?”

“Isn’t that what people typically do, though?” She asked, still a bit apprehensive.

“What do you mean?”

“For dates...” Her face started to betray her yet again, turning blue. You smiled.

“Not all _dates_ ” You made sure to emphasize the word because it made you happy and her nervous, “Are about food. Why don’t we take a ride?” You suggested as you finished off your slice. She cautiously handed you hers, which you reluctantly threw away with your napkin. You weren’t really in any place to waste money, but you didn’t want this date to be a disaster either.

“Where exactly are we going?” She asked as she walked behind you, dusting the sand off of herself, but you just giggled excitedly and kept walking until you finally reached your first destination: the boardwalk parking lot.

“This is my baby.” You gestured to your bike. Pearl gave you a puzzled look.

“I’m fairly certain that’s not possible.” She explained, eyes doubting.

“Not _literally_ my baby, she’s just important to me.” You patted your bike affectionately, before getting on. “You joining me?” You asked while rustling around in your bag for two helmets. You hadn’t exactly anticipated this, but you always kept a second one around just in case. When you handed it to her, she looked at it with amusement for a moment before she put it on. “I’m glad you’re so concerned with safety.”

“I don’t want you cracking that thing before we even get to a second date.” You gestured to her head, but she looked surprised.

“That would be catastrophic, though I’m not sure you quite understand the ramifications of shattering a gem-”

“-Oh. Not...“ You cut her off. “I meant your head in general. Though, I guess that includes your," You paused uncomfortably "Gem? I’m not sure how that works.”

“Well.” She patted the helmet. “That's a story for another time. But this should keep both of those nice and safe.” You nodded in agreement. “There doesn’t happen to be a seatbelt on this thing, does there?” She sat down behind you and her chest pressed against your back. She didn’t know what to do with her hands, at first, until you grabbed them and wrapped them around your waist.

“Nope. Just hold on tight.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

You stopped at the top of the mountain pass, where you knew some of the residents in town closer to your age street raced occasionally. The first time you rode out there, you knew the city was one of a kind. The view was unbeatable.

When you finally found a place to stop, you sat for a second and just listened to Pearl’s breathing slow back down again. She had expressed both shrieks of enjoyment and terror during your short ride, especially when you attempted some riskier maneuvers.

When she noticeably relaxed, you propped up your bike and led her over to a ledge. You learned from experience that people were more likely to open up when you were sitting side by side.

“How was that?” You asked, after a few minutes of silence.

“Dangerous.” You chuckled. “And exhilarating.” She confessed.

“The best things in life always are.” You attempted to make eye contact, and you tried to give her an inviting smirk, but she quickly avoided your eyes.

“I’m sorry I’ve been acting so strangely with you,” Pearl confessed, and she shifted uncomfortably. “I really wanted to make a good first impression, and I don’t know how any of this works. I’ve never dated before.”

“Are you telling me that someone as fascinating as yourself has never been in love before?” She looked taken aback by that question.

“I guess I have, but it was different. I didn’t try to fall in love with her. It just happened. We started out as acquaintances and then after getting to know her for a while, I was willing to die for her.” She inhaled and exhaled deeply. That seemed a little intense. “I’ve never been in a situation like this before, like us, where I felt...” She thought for a second. “Attracted? To you. And you reciprocated that feeling? It’s very confusing.” You nodded in agreement.

“We can slow down if you want.” She raised her eyebrows. You found yourself reluctantly continuing. “We can pretend I never gave you my number at that concert. We can just be friends, and if something more happens we can see where it goes from there.” She seemed to relax at this prospect. You had to admit that it disappointed you.

“That sounds lovely. This entire evening has been lovely.” She looked out at the view of Beach City, and then back at you. “You’re lovely.”

“Thank you.” If you hadn’t just concluded that you were going to slow down, you might have kissed her at that moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, i'm going to give Pearl a chance to show off how much of a bad ass she is. Right now she's just an awkward ball of awkward. Bear with me.


	4. Life's a Beach

Day 2 of "just friends" with Pearl, you ran into her at the grocery store.

Fortunately, nothing about you said “sexy,” as you were wearing your least attractive pajama pants (complete with stains and holes), an oversized hoodie, your hair in a ponytail, and no makeup. It was probably 7 in the morning, and you needed to grab coffee filters, which you had somehow forgot when you came to the grocery store the day before.

You might have attempted to hide, but she saw you before you noticed her.

“S!” She acknowledged you, and you considered just dying right there.

“I thought you didn’t eat?” You asked, and she waved it off.

“I have to feed Steven, unfortunately... I try to remind everyone that it’s not my responsibility to take over all of the domestic tasks, even though I’m a Pearl, but it seems that no one else is capable of doing them properly.” She explained. “Last time I let Amethyst do the grocery shopping, she came back with nothing but household cleaners because she liked the colors.” She laughed as if you should understand that anecdote without any explanation. “But you probably didn’t need all of that information.”

“I admit that I’m more confused than I was before you explained.” You confessed. “But I like hearing you talk anyway.”

“Well...” She blushed. “I notice you look different today.” She gestured to your outfit, and you considered dying once again. “I like it.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Day 4 you ended up in the hospital with a broken arm.

You decided, on a perfectly good Wednesday, to spend the day at the beach. You were a little disappointed when the weather didn’t agree with your plans, and it was cloudy and miserable looking, but you refused to let that ruin your day. At least it wasn’t supposed to rain.

So you curled up on a blanket, put in your earbuds, started listening to a new album and passed out.

You were woken up by water dripping on your face. You waited a minute before opening your eyes because you didn’t want to admit that rain was happening.

“S. Move!” You heard from somewhere in the distance. You snapped your eyes open to see something you couldn’t quite wrap your head around.

It was big, stood over you, was soaking wet, and was bright green.

It had fluffy white hair? You didn’t really get a good look at it before it growled at you and swatted you 7 feet across the beach without even trying.

You landed on you arm, and you considered just laying there in the sand until you were met with the sweet release of death, but before you knew it, you found yourself surrounded by a pink bubble.

“Steven, keep her safe!” You heard Pearl shout, though you couldn’t see her at first. Steven nodded and asked if you were okay.

“My arm hurts.” You admitted.

“Garnet told us this could happen, but Pearl and I couldn’t get here in time.” He sounded distraught.

“What is that thing?” You asked once you noticed Pearl fabricate a staff out of thin air. Well, that was cool.

“It’s a corrupted gem.” Steven tried to explain.

“So it’s like you guys?”

“It used to be. I’m still not sure what made them this way, but all we can do is put them in a bubble and keep them safe in the temple. This one must have gotten away when we were in the Beta kindergarten.”

“Kindergarten?” You asked, but his attention was back to the fight. You could see why. Pearl was clearly in her element in battle. Every single one of her movements was graceful. She was able to practically float through the air, leading the creature into a corner, before stabbing the thing right through the abdomen.

By the time it was able to register what had happened, it had disappeared into thin air, and a rock fell into Pearl’s hand. Pearl wrapped it in a bubble like Steven had wrapped you in, tapped it on the top, and it disappeared too. Once he was sure the coast was clear, Steven let you escape, and Pearl rushed over to you.

“Are you okay?” She asked, intensely worried. You might have been gawking.

“I will be. What was that?” She started the same spiel Steven had given her, but you cut her off. “I mean, have you always been such a great fighter?”

She touched your arm gently, bending it and noticing your wince. “Not always, I was meant to be a servant. But Rose Quartz taught me I could be a fighter if I wanted to be.”

“So what, now you’re just kicking ass and taking names like it’s nothing?” You laughed, and she hesitantly nodded.

“I learned to fight with weapons, and now I can handle myself in battle, yes.” She frowned at your arm. “Steven, can you help us out here?”

He nodded and licked his hand. You raised your eyebrows when he slapped his moist hand onto your arm. Especially when he just stood there, shocked, when nothing happened.

“What is the point of healing powers if they only work sometimes?” He groaned and kicked the sand, but Pearl immediately became motherly.

“You’re still figuring it all out, Steven. I’m sure she appreciates you trying.”

“You heal people by spitting on them?” You asked, ignoring Pearl’s comment.

“Sometimes.” He sighed again. “I guess this is a job for Dr. Maheswaren instead of me this time.”

You officially decided you should have stayed home when Steven and Pearl actually suggested you travel to the hospital by riding on a magical pink flying lion.


	5. Nerd Bonding

Your first day back at work, you were given a large box full of assorted parts. “It took me a long time to finally find all of them, at least, I think that’s all of them.” Mr. Smiley said as he handed the massive box over. It’s like he didn’t care that your arm was broken. “It’s the robot from the Zoltron machine. I need to attend to some things this afternoon, so please don’t let anyone break anything. I know the park is closed, but you can’t trust these kids.” You nodded.

With one arm, you carried the box back out onto the boardwalk. “Mystery Girl!” The robot shouted at you when you approached it, and you about had a heart attack. “It’s me, Steven.”

You blinked, shook your head, and then blinked again. “Did I just imagine that?"

“No, I just broke the machine a while ago, and now Mr. Smiley makes me dress up like a robot and predict people’s futures on a somewhat regular basis.” He explained.

“Well apparently, my responsibility is to fix it now.”

“Whaaaaaaat!” Steven crossed his arms. “I never thought that automation would steal my hard earned job away from me.”

“Does Mr. Smiley even pay you?"

“No.” He conceded and proceeded to climb out of the machine. You took one look at all of the now bent pieces on the inside of the machine and sighed. It was probably hopeless. “Do you think you can fix it?”

“I’m... not sure.” You dug around in the box for a minute, but you didn’t really know anything about fixing a robot. A computer, a car, your motorcycle, sure. But a robot? Even if it was just a toy? You were in over your head.

Steven’s face brightened out of nowhere. “You know who is _really_ good at fixing things?” After a moment of silence, he continued. “Pearl!” You loathed the idea of being reminded yet again how much more interesting Pearl was than you, so you visibly protested. “Ok, maybe not...”

“I appreciate the thought, Steven, but this is _my_ job.”

“I know that, but since you got attacked by the corrupted gem monster, I feel like I owe you one.” Before you could protest, he shook his head. “Let me do this.”

“Fine.” You figured that someone with his level of determination was not worth arguing with anyway.

“I have someone perfect in mind. Hold on.” Steven pulled out his phone and walked off. After a few minutes of incoherent chattering just outside of earshot, he returned with a grin. “She’s on her way. I’ll bring her here. We will be back in less than an hour, promise.” He assured you, but you also hoped he didn’t live up to that promise.

You went ahead and browsed the internet for any sort of tutorial with no luck. “Future Boy Zoltron” as a search query literally retrieved not a single relevant result.

You seriously debated giving up and started fantasizing about burning the whole place down and blaming it on Onion when Steven finally showed up. With a friend.

That looked... well, like an Alien. More so than the others, even.

“This is-“

“Peridot, nice to meet you.” The short, green gem introduced herself.

You started to introduce yourself, “I’m S-“

“This is Mystery Girl!” Steven interrupted, and you sighed. “She’s Pearl’s friend.” Peridot squinted at you and then nodded. “I am going to leave you two to it, then!” Steven said, and stood there for an awkwardly long time in silence before leaving.

“So...” Peridot began. “What primitive human technology are we repairing?”

“It’s a robot. I think it talks.” You explained, and gestured towards the box. She took a look at the machine, and then the box, and squinted again.

“What progress have you made already?” She asked, and you shrugged.

“I looked it up on the internet and didn’t find any schematic for what it is even supposed to look like when fixed, so I have no idea.” She seemed satisfied with that answer and began digging through the box of parts.

“So are you some kind of human technician, then?” Peridot asked, and you laughed probably louder than you should have.

“Not really. This is just the only job I could find when I got here.” You explained, but she seemed to be lost in putting pieces together. “I’m pretty good with cars, and computers, but this is a little bit beyond my expertise, I guess.”

“It’s all the same really,” Peridot explained. “Though your computer devices on this planet are admittedly impressive, given the fact that your circuits are transistor based and your digital signals are limited to a base 2 number system.”

“Well, unless we’re dealing with qubits. They represent non binary data.” You defended, and she chuckled.

“I suppose, but quantum computing would definitely have some negative implications for your prime-factorization-based encryption schemes if humans were ever able to actually implement it.”

“That’s what forward secrecy is for.” She turned around, a bit shocked, and you smirked.

“You seem to be an expert on this topic.” She admitted while returning to her work on the robot thing, which she had made a weird amount of progress on while you talked about post-quantum cryptography. “Yet you seem to be unable to fix even the most primitive of robots-“

She connected two wires, and the robot started to hum, and then vibrate.

Until it exploded. You laughed.

“Okay, maybe I don’t know what I’m doing either.” She admitted, demoralized. “I think there are pieces missing.”

“It’s very possible.” You suggested, and she stared at it for a few moments in silence, before walking off towards the amusement park part of Funland.

You leaned against the wall and waited, checking the phone occasionally to make sure that you weren’t unnecessarily working any longer than you had to. Unfortunately, time crawled at its usual rate.

Peridot returned with a stack of parts of her own, but when you attempted to ask her for some sort of explanation, she shushed you.

So you sat and watched her work. She was methodical, clearly on whatever planet she’s from, she was also some sort of ‘technician’, and at least had some kind of interest in Earth technology.

When she was finished, you were pretty sure the robot looked nothing like Steven’s costume, but with the voice box installed, it was at least capable of responding with three different answers, even if one of them was just lottery numbers. You barely did anything but watch, but you felt satisfied with your work.

“I think I get it now,” Peridot said. You raised your eyebrow, but she wasn’t looking at you. “I thought Pearl was only interested in you because you look like a human version of Rose Quartz, but you’re actually this cool, mysterious hacker that looks like a human version of Rose Quartz.”

“I’m not sure who that even is, and also, I never said I was a hacker.”

“You didn’t have to.” She smiled smugly and you. “I extrapolated. But for my work on your robot device, I have a question for you.”

“I-“ You wanted to argue with her assumption about your hobby, but it would be a waste of effort. “What exactly is that?”

“Somehow, you’ve managed to get Pearl’s attention. How did you do it?” Peridot asked, and you snorted out of shock.

“Are you interested in Pearl?”

“Oh stars, no.” She said quickly and then got defensive. “It’s... someone else. Actually, I don’t need to explain it to you. Just help me.”

“I need more information than that.” You explained, and she sighed.

“She’s... cool, and mysterious. Like you are.” Peridot explained. “But I’m just... the short era 2 Peridot with weak metal powers and an unnecessary knowledge of, well, everything.”

“You’re definitely not lacking in confidence.” You observed, and she huffed.

“Every time I say anything to get her attention, it’s like it’s obvious that I’m trying too hard.”

It’s cringe worthy how much Peridot reminded you of a younger, more awkward version of yourself.

“I don’t know if it will work for you, but I’ve found that the best way to get someone’s attention is to act like you’re completely uninterested in the outcome of your conversation. Like, act like you couldn’t care less whether or not she finds you interesting.”

“Act like I don’t care?” She seemed skeptical. “That seems counterintuitive.”

“I mean, act like yourself and don’t try too hard.” You summarized, and she nodded, slowly. You fear she did not understand your advice, but she seemed to be thinking about it. “Also, the lip ring and my combat boots seem to help. Chicks dig that.” You laughed, so she laughed, insincerely.

“I don’t understand what chickens have to do with any of this.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Steven came back around to pick up Peridot and return her to wherever she came from, and you tried to clean up a bit in the last hour of your shift. Surprisingly, Steven returned again.

“Do you want to come with me to the Big Donut before they close?” He asked, hopefully. You had 15 minutes left in your shift, but it’s not like anyone would find out.

He chatted with you about his day, apparently, since he was relieved of his day job as Zoltron, he was able to hang out with his friend Connie and watch a few hours worth of Under the Knife.

The two of you got the last ten remaining donuts at a 50% discount and parked yourselves on a bench facing the ocean. You started to understand why people liked Steven so much, he's definitely the kind of kid that raises your spirits even when you didn’t realize you needed them raised at all.

Your moment, looking out at the beach as the sun went down, was interrupted by Steven’s phone going off. He looked at it and twisted his face in confusion.

“Huh.” Steven looked away from his phone, “did Peridot seem upset when she was hanging out with you?”

“No.” You shoved half a donut in your mouth.

“Lapis says that Peridot is completely ignoring her, that’s strange.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I needed to write something light hearted to cope with that steven bomb. Hope you like it!


End file.
